UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

About the Bloomsbury Project

Educational

West Central Collegiate Day School

West Central Collegiate School for Young Ladies/West Central Collegiate Day School for Girls

History

It was a girls’ school founded in 1858 by a voluntary group of women who raised the initial funds for it themselves; it subsequently became self-supporting (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

There was one free scholarship (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

It had 63 pupils by 1864, most of them coming from the school’s immediate area in south Bloomsbury (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

It took Jewish girls as well as Christians; the former were excused attendance at daily prayers (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

It taught a mixture of subjects, including English, French, Latin, music, drawing, needlework, arithmetic and book-keeping, and sciences (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

It apparently no longer exists

What was reforming about it?

It was aimed at providing a good standard of education to the daughters of respectable, but not wealthy, tradesmen and professionals (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

Where in Bloomsbury

According to the Victoria County History, it was established in Southampton Row in 1858 (Victoria County History, Middlesex, Vol. I (1969), but it actually began in Great Ormond Street in 1858 before moving to 97 Southampton Row in 1859 (House of Commons Papers, vol. 29, part 9: Reports from Commissioners, 1867–1868)

By 1878 it had moved to 29 Queen Square (Spectator, vol. 51, 1878) and it was still there in 1884 (Journal of Education, vol. 6, 1884)

By 1907 it had moved again to 25 Mecklenburgh Square (Edwin Beresford Chancellor, The History of the Squares of London, 1907), where it remained until some time before the Second World War